bkb lezing 2012

14 September 2012 By John PodestaResponse Lodewijk Asscher

Building a progressivefuture: Challengesand opportunities ineurope and ameriCa

John Podesta

Building a progressive future: Challenges and opportunities in Europe andAmerica

It’s great to be here in Amsterdam

Thanks, also, to Erik van Bruggen and Alex Klusman and the team at BKB

for hosting this evening’s discussion. It is an honor for me to be here, to

deliver your annual lecture, and to celebrate thirteen years of successful

progressive campaigning and governing with you.

During my time in the White House, one of Bill Clinton's favorite

partners, maybe the favorite parter, was Wim Kok. As Clinton would say:

"I love that guy".... and it’s heartening to see his team coming back into

leadership in your country. This week’s election was a positive step

towards returning Labour to a central role in the Netherland’s political

future. But we must take care not to mistake this positive signal for more

than it is.

The fiscal crisis that weighs upon the western world has upended politics

in every country, but really in unpredictable and non-ideological ways.

Let me explain what I mean.

Fiscal crises are non-partisan. They ruthlessly upend governments;

neither progressive nor conservative parties are immune from being

tossed from power to the periphery by publics who simply demand relief

from punishing economic conditions.

Building a progressive future 3

To celebrate our thirteenth anniversary BKB hosted the fourth BKB Lecture

on September 14th, 2012 in De Duif in Amsterdam. The lecture was given by

John Podesta (former Chief of Staff of President Clinton), followed by a

response from Lodewijk Asscher (Amsterdam city alderman). Because 2012 is

an election year for both the USA and the Netherlands, Podesta’s insights in

the U.S. elections and their international consequences, and Asscher’s view

on the Dutch situation were especially interesting.

Not with 53 days before the election, three presidential debates in October,

two reports of employment statistics between now and November 6th,

an ongoing effort to disenfranchise young and minority voters, and

literally hundreds of millions of dollars of super-PAC money that will be

spent in an effort to defeat him.

That’s why it’s critical that Barack Obama make the case that his policies

have made an enormous difference, adding 4.5 million private sector jobs

in the last 29 months and saving the US auto industry from collapse and

contrast that with Republican plans that will be deeply harmful –

shrinking the middle class, narrowing opportunity and mobility, crushing

what we like to refer to on our side of the Atlantic as the American Dream.

He must also make the positive case for why progressives have the best

ideas to govern going forward. That’s what the president must do. But

we have a job to do as well.

For us to build a progressive future in Europe and the United States, we

have to address the three crises that lie at the core of the challenges and

opportunities before us: an economic crisis, whose answer is rooted in

aggressive policies to build a new economy around a growing and

prosperous middle class; a credibility crisis that divides citizens from

government, whose answer lies in a relentless commitment to reform;

and, a political crisis, that can only be overcome by beating the right wing

parties in parliaments, polling booths, and the public square, with an

unyielding commitment to winning the battle of ideas.

Today, it is not good enough for progressives to be anti-austerity; we must

also be pro-growth and pro-reform. Our electorates sense that something

is wrong with the way things are. While they may accept that a short-

term stimulus is needed to protect jobs and support growth, progressive

parties will only be given permission to pursue this short-term path if


Voters across the democracies have shown an eagerness to replace

leadership out of their growing frustration that things are fundamentally

broken and need to change. Wednesday's election bucked this trend, as

Dutch voters chose sensible mainstream parties capable of governing over

populism and extremism.

But, across the developed world, voters have no particular preference for

the center left or center right solutions right now.

In attempting to take advantage of this crisis, the right has been consistent

in its approach, offering a simplistic response. Lower taxes, lower

regulation, shut off immigration. And attack central government,

whether it be in DC or Brussels.

For them, austerity, inequality, and injustice are acceptable costs for others

to bear as they travel the road to greater power and wealth. For them,

politics is a game of outcomes rigged to advantage the powerful against

the middle class and the poor.

We know better. But if we simply wait in the wings for conditions to turn,

and publics to turn to us, we could be waiting a very long time.

Progressives still have to prove that we have credible responses to the

high unemployment rates, low growth, and high debt levels that are

unacceptable indicators of stagnation.

The US, as you all know, faces an election that offers a stark choice

between the conservative and progressive visions of a just society and the

role of government. Let me be clear: while President Obama emerged

from his party convention with a narrow lead, and I am optimistic that

he will win reelection, this race is not a foregone conclusion.

4 John Podesta

away from having the economy we need. In the United States, there is

growing evidence that the corrosive effects of high unemployment will

cast a shadow over the economy for many years to come. As Paul

Krugman notes the biggest problem facing young Americans today isn't

the future burden of debt; it is the lack of jobs, which is preventing many

graduates from getting started on their work and their lives.

The National Federation of Independent Businesses conducts a monthly

survey of its members and for over three years has reported that “sales”

– another way of saying “demand” – are the single most important

problem for its members.

As even the Wall Street Journal now admits, the main reason US

companies are reluctant to step up hiring is not some ephemeral sense

of uncertainty, but scant demand.

This is acerbated by a lack of wage growth. US median incomes have

fallen dramatically over the last decade, creating pressures on American

families and constraining demand. The US Census Bureau reported

yesterday that the medium household income has fallen to US $50,054,

the lowest level since 1995.

Inequality could be further affecting demand. As income shifts upward,

evidence suggests that the composition of demand changes in ways that

are detrimental to economic growth. As income gains in the US

increasingly go to those at the very top of the income distribution, their

spending patterns affect overall demand and thus production.

From World War II to 1980, the bottom 90 percent of us took home 65

percent of national income. The top 10 percent of us took home 35

percent, the top 1 percent 9 percent. That was enough inequality to


they have a credible program for structural economic reform and an

agenda for renewal of services that serve and lift the people. This

challenge is what faces Francois Hollande today in France, and it is a

similar challenge that President Obama must overcome in this year’s

campaign.

My remarks center around what I think will make a difference for

progressives in the US, what we can learn from our successes and

failures, and how these lessons ought to inform the challenges of doing

politics today, globally.

In Europe, average people are paying a fearful price for the austerity

program that the political class – in defiance of the economic evidence –

is demanding from governments and society’s across the continent. Even

from across the Atlantic, when it comes to Europe, we feel your pain.

We especially feel it, because if the out party in America held the levers

of power, we’d still be scraping the bottom our economy reached when

we waved George Bush goodbye.

As you undoubtedly know, President Obama, in the midst of the greatest

economic crisis since the Great Depression, had to fight to recapitalize

the financial system and fill some of the hole created by the collapse in

lending, growth, employment, and wages, with as much stimulus as he

could wring from Congress – with help from the Federal Reserve Board,

and an ambitious plan to save our auto industry. Even in a crisis, nothing

came easy, because the right in America put their political interests above

the national interest and adopted a strategy of total obstructionism.

Although President Obama’s policies have made a difference, as I noted,

adding 4.5 million private sector jobs in the last 29 months, we’re years

6 John Podesta

By contrast, the cerebral center-left tends to underestimate just how

powerful policy is and can be. They look at trends like income growth

over the last thirty years and act as if it’s a force of nature and nothing

can be done about it. They forget what a quick, strong, and lasting impact

we had during the Clinton years, and they allow the conservatives to

control the debate about the effectiveness that measures have had during

this crisis – undertaken by Obama – to make conditions better.

We know the right course. Our focus needs to be on support for work

and strengthening the middle class.

Think of what President Clinton’s eight year record of progressive

economic produced. Under his administration:

1. 23.1 million new jobs were created, ten times more jobs were created

than under George W. Bush prior to the economic collapse in 2008

2. The economy grew by 35%, twice as fast as under his successor

3. Wages increased significantly, while actually declining under Bush

4. 100 times more people were raised out of poverty that the two Reagan

terms and two Bushes combined

5. We balanced the budget, paid down debt, and put the US on a path to

be debt-free by 2013

Progressive economics worked not just in the US but also in the UK with

New Labour, in the Netherlands with Wim Kok, and with Gerhard

Schroeder in Germany. She probably doesn’t admit it, but Chancellor

Merkel wouldn’t be standing so tall in the European Union, had

Chancellor Schroeder not put country over politics when he pushed

through Agenda 2010.

All sensible politicians favor fiscal responsibility. Just as all sensible

politicians should favor growth. The question is what is the right short


reward talent, hard work, creativity, and good ideas. Look how it’s

changed since 1980 under the alternative theory. The bottom 90

percent’s share of national income has dropped from 65 to 52 percent.

The top 10 percent has gone from 35 to 48 percent. The top 1 percent has

gone from 9 percent to 22 percent.

All this points to a more urgent need for progressive politics, focused on

jobs and greater equality as a starting point and a route to growth.

In policy terms, we know what must be done, but we face four formidable

obstacles:

1. An obstructionist right

2. A cerebral, complacent center

3. A lapsed commitment to reform

4. A failure to fight for what we know is right

Come rain or come shine, the conservatives always favor dismantling

government and leaving the only essential function they support: turning

it into an ATM for the rich and powerful to the disadvantage of the middle

class and poor. They run up deficits and demand austerity. They

deregulate without relent.

Across Europe, many countries implementing this strategy have

experienced a double-dip recession. As public sector workers – teachers,

police and fireman – are laid off, unemployment skyrockets and demand

plummets, as even those with jobs prefer to save rather than consume.

A negative spiral of economic activity shrinks the economy to such an

extent that the fall in tax revenues is greater than the savings made in the

public budget – borrowing goes up not down and growth collapses.

8 John Podesta

We have put forth concrete ideas on how to implement this approach,

supporting structural reforms that can help the American economy

transition to a more sustainable future. Some of these ideas include:

- Establishing an infrastructure bank to allow state and local

governments to finance critical projects that boost economic growth

- Creating one million apprenticeships to bring more skilled workers

into the workforce and expand the possibility of middle class careers

- Providing aid to local governments to increase hiring of the

decimated ranks of teachers, police and firefighters from vicious

austerity cuts

- Creating approximately 250,000 new green jobs every year by

investing in green technology R&D and manufacturing processes.

We can do this.

But a middle class economic agenda is only part of the necessary

approach. We must continue to hold and advance the mantle of political

reform as the party that embraces government-led approaches to change.

As we call for government involvement in critical investment to build a

vital middle class in our countries, we must work to show that our ideas

are more than a lazy pro-statist ideology that the right can and will present

in caricature to devastating political effect.

When it comes to institutions – government, banks, unions, the media

etc. – there is a legitimacy crisis that plays to the fears of the middle class,

ramps up their skepticism about our promises, and they are right. But

their fears about government also stem from the self-interested, thirty

year campaign by conservatives to undermine support for the role of

government, whether it works or not.


term and medium term policy mix to get them both in the long term. As

Europe heads back into recession, it is becoming evident that national

economies cannot recover, that nations will never be able to balance

budgets and pay down their debts, if they don’t create jobs and foster a

strong, broad and vibrant middle class.

The Center for American Progress promotes policies backed by

experience in progressive governance over the last two decades.

The case for a relentless focus on building the strength of the middle class

is founded on economic facts:

1. The level of human capital affects productivity

2. Purchasing power creates strong and stable demand for the private

sector

3. Investment in public goods (schools, health, R & D infrastructure) lays

the groundwork for private sector investment.

4. A strong middle class gives individuals the confidence to start a

business and helps incubate entrepreneurs

That means, our response to economic conditions must be an aggressive

agenda that focuses on the needs of the middle class and the poor

through:

1. An investment agenda that supports the human and physical

infrastructure and investments in science and technology that makes

future growth possible;

2. A fairer tax code that rewards innovation, growth, and a more equitable

distribution of the benefits of our economy; and

3. Legal immigration, greater income equality, and more women in the

workforce to promote the value of a diverse society.

10 John Podesta

that you can do be trusted to do the same again tomorrow. When you

don’t have a plan for tomorrow, well…. Why should you have your job

tomorrow?

In many countries we became tired, and succumbed to the incumbency/

insurgency dilemma, harping on about our past achievements, and

explaining how difficult future change will be to achieve.

We need to embrace continuous change and reform, just as the right has

done, but based on our values and ideals. We can’t get caught in a trap

of expanding government instead of reforming it.

My think tank calls this, “Doing What Works”. We've place and emphasis

on ideas for:

1. Eliminating or reforming misguided spending programs and tax

expenditures to maximize bang for the taxpayers buck.

2. Boosting government productivity by streamlining management and

strengthening operational supports; and

3. Building a foundation for smarter decision making by enhancing

performance assessment and transparency.

We progressives believe in results. The programs we have built that work

are worth keeping and fighting for. To give citizens better lives, we ask

from them greater responsibility. But we must live up to greater

responsibility in the way government works. When we have power, the

burden of governing effectively rests with us.

9/11 and the subsequent terrorist attacks in London and Madrid made

people fearful for their national and human security, and more recently

the global financial crisis also made people fearful for their economic

futures.


The economic crisis has magnified this legitimacy crisis and made our

citizens especially angry at government’s failures and exceptionally

susceptible to the right-wing rhetoric that exaggerates their fears.

The right has always understood that undermining citizen confidence in

the efficiency of government made it possible to build support for cutting

some of its most necessary functions.

The Right is not simply conservative. It is activist offering an agenda for

radical reconstruction, one that resonates with those that feel government

is to slow, inefficient, and bloated. It wants to “reform” government, by

breaking it up and tearing it down, all to advance their larger goals of

concentrating power in the hands of the already powerful, giving more

wealth to those who are already wealthy.

Progressives in America still embrace the reforming zeal that animated

activity from Teddy Roosevelt to Franklin Roosevelt to Bill Clinton.

President Obama’s policies in health care, financial reform, and

infrastructure investments all embraced a strong reformist approach that

didn’t just want to increase budgets, but wanted to improve the way these

sectors work on a fundamental level by improving efficiency and

rationality in the system.

The one area where I believe the current administration has not done well

enough is in talking about its successes to the American people. The

President agrees with me on this count.

The burden of progressive politics is that we have to treat every single

year in office as if it is our first, particularly if there is a lot of anxiety

among the electorate. In progressive politics, though, the only good your

record does is to provide evidence that you deliver on your promises, and

12 John Podesta

The solution to this problem seems so obvious but – until the Democratic

convention – progressives didn’t act as if they knew what to do. We need

to be better at defending our legacy. We need to be better at clearly

contrasting the consequences of our policies versus those of the right. We

need to be better at helping voters connect the dots so they get a clearer

picture of the choices in confronting them, and the evidence to support

their choices.

As the late US Senator Pat Moynihan was fond to say – Everyone is

entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts.

We need not just to speak truth to power. We need to turn truth into

power...

Americans, Dutch, Brits, all these people make rational decisions at

election time based on what they know. If they don’t know the facts –

you can’t turn truth into power, not if the ultimate holders of power, the

citizens themselves, don’t know the facts.

So for example, in 2010 everybody knew the stimulus was a failure, except

it wasn’t.

The hole blown on the economy was about $3 trillion deep. The stimulus

was $800 billion. That 36 percent of the stimulus went directly to a tax

cut for 95 percent of the people. That 30 percent went to local

governments to save the jobs of teachers and police. Most people in

American didn’t know this in 2010. Most people in America still didn’t

know what enactment of the health care law meant to them.

For the elderly, it means saving $600 per year on the cost of prescription

drugs. For families, it means health insurance cannot be denied because

your child has a serious illness, and that young adults can now obtain

health insurance under their parents’ coverage.


Whenever people are afraid, the Right’s politics seems to work better,

because they are great at finding enemies, and turning everything into a

conflict between good and evil.

The Right preys on people’s insecurities.

They talk tough, make people feel they will take care of them and are

skilled at manipulating facts to fit their political agendas.

Consider, for example, how the politics of austerity quickly transformed

the global political landscape. In the public mind, what began as a crisis

of deregulated financial markets and bankers’ irresponsibility was quickly

re-shaped into a crisis of excessive public deficits and an overblown state.

Today, the new Rights economic analysis blends a toxic political narrative

about a story of economic decline in the face of rising powers in Asia, and

wasteful government spending at home.

It pits labor against capital, government against business, racial majorities

against minorities, straights against gays.

And it as able to accomplish all of these things when their charges, lies,

and self-interested ideology all go unanswered. And the problem has

persisted throughout most of the President’s first term.

As the NY Times wrote recently, “this should be a compelling story for

the president to tell — how he came into office and stabilized Ohio

communities on the brink, how he preserved what may have been tens

of thousands of jobs tied to the auto industry. “

14 John Podesta

Progressives need to rediscover that sense of urgency and purpose, and

ensure that in the future the Bretton Woods institutions are reformed and

refocused to prioritize employment and economic growth, and that

international trade and investment agreements are redesigned to promote

our values, including the promotion of labor rights and environmental

standards.

That is why in Madrid last October, the Center for American Progress

asked leaders from Europe, Africa and the Americas to sign a declaration

calling for greater focus in international discussion. Signed by the then

future President of France, Francois Hollande, leaders of progressive

parties across Europe, and former President Lula from Brazil, the

statement called on the G20 to:

• Agree on a new global growth pact, following on from the Pittsburgh

and London summit agreements;

• Link growth and employment creation to the fight against climate

change and environmental policies;

• Make the creation of good jobs a direct goal, not a side effect of other

policy initiatives;

• Promote investment and support for small and medium enterprises

to create more jobs;

• Agree to increase investment in research, development and innovation

to help create the industries of the future;

In addition the declaration called on the multilateral institutions and the

G20 to work together to develop a concrete multi-year plan to support a

global growth strategy that places at the center good job creation and

environmental sustainability.


1.4 million more Americans had health insurance last year because of

Obamacare. And if President Obama is reelected, it means that health

care in America will be a right and not a privilege, and that is exactly what

progressives are fighting for.

If Americans didn’t know it in August, they sure knew it 48 minutes into

Bill Clinton’s speech at the Democratic Convention last week. He said to

me the afternoon before the speech that voters need education not

eloquence. Hopefully come election day in November 2012, they will

know it as well. You cannot turn truth into power if those that exercise

power in elections, the voters, do not know the truth. We need to do more

to help people connect the dots.

This economy is fragile. Yet, there is not a single example today of a really

successful wealthy country that does not have both a vibrant economy

and a strong effective government.

We have to expose the “faith-based” theories of the Conservatives – and

when I refer to faith based, I’m not talking about religion – I just mean

they have faith in their economic beliefs despite the evidence. Their

policies are wrong, and the evidence shows this. But our publics will

never fully believe it until they hear it from us.

This domestic agenda also needs to be supported and complemented by

one for global reform. At the G20s in London and Pittsburgh,

progressives were successful in brokering a consensus in favor of

coordinated investment and economic stimulus aimed at job protection

and stemming the crisis.

Unfortunately, it didn’t last long, and by 2010 and in Toronto it had

dissipated.

16 John Podesta

Response Lodewijk Asscher

It is a great honour and joy to be co-referent to Mr. John Podesta. He was

chief of staff of an amazing president. The small summary he has given

about his record is impressive. A growth of jobs of 50 % more than the 8

years before and the 8 years after Clinton combined. It was the economy,

stupid. But there is something else about his former boss that inspires

me. His nickname was the comeback kid.

He took blows, but always bounced back stronger.

He believed in success when despair was luring.

He fought back from positions observers deemed hopeless.

A comeback kid is someone who never gives up.

For me a comeback kid epitomizes the essence of politics.

Because politics is not the art of the possible, but the art to make possible

what seems to be impossible.

Now, this past week we have witnessed our own comeback kid. Labour

leader Diederik Samsom defied all laws of what can be won in just a

couple of weeks.

In a meticulous campaign he climbed from rags to richess.

From being outflanked by the Socialist Party to being in the centre of

power.

What he achieved could best be called a miracle.

Response 19

Close

The choice Americans face is clear. Will we pursue a future where the

middle class is strengthened through investment and tax policies that will

build incomes, raise skill levels to compete in the global economy, and

increase economic security through stronger health and retirement plans?

Or will we return to the vicious circle of deregulation, austerity, tax cuts

for the wealthy and an international race to the bottom?

I think Americans are beginning to understand the stakes.

This is a common challenge to all of us on the left of center, who risk

falling prey to the forces of reaction and division. It is a common

challenge that must be met by common approaches where we can learn

from each other, discerning the best and most successful approaches to

repairing a broken global economic and political system.

I remain an optimist. Voters respect intelligent and honest approaches

to governing. But we must be aggressive in making our case,

collaborative in reaching out to each other to take the best ideas, and have

it mandatory in taking the mantle of change away from the right.

If we get this right, then I am confident that the next year will help lay

the foundation for a new era of progressive success at the ballot and

collaboration in governance that will rival our experience from the late

1990s.

The stakes are too high for us not to succeed.

We have done this before, and can do it again.

Thank you.

18 John Podesta

That’s why I think that the biggest challenge lies ahead of us, not behind

us. There are no simple solutions for the economic crisis. There are no

simple remedies for the confidence deficit. There is no magic wand with

which to wish away all political dissatisfaction.

One key factor of the success of Diederik Samsom in the election

campaign was that he was willing to tell the inconvenient truth. He did

not try to bribe voters with a promise of a thousand euro. He did not hand

out niceties like a licence to race at the highways. He did not make

promises about the Greeks he might be forced to break.

So let me honour Diederik by doing what he did. I will tell the

inconvenient truth as well.

So I like to take this opportunity to set straight what I think is wrong with

the progressive movement and tell you where we should be heading.

Our social democratic forefathers constructed the institutions of today’s

welfare state with the idea in mind that those institutions would last

forever.

In all honesty, we haven’t been very good custodians.

In my work as deputy mayor in Amsterdam, I stumble upon so many

examples of how we, with all the best intentions, made it impossible for

hard working people to find solutions to their problems. How we have

made it impossible for people to think and act independently.

Take this real life example: The child in a crisis situation who simply

needed a bed, but was not allowed to sleep in the empty bed at the local

police station because her IQ was too low. This bed was strictly reserved

Response 21

It is tempting to mock those who wrote us off.

It is tempting to ridicule our critics.

It is tempting to talk about the homecoming of our electorate, to brag that

we were right and they were wrong all along.

But I will not do so. It would stain our miracle.

It would distract us from what needs to be done.

I do believe in miracles, but I don’t believe in fairy tales.

One good campaign is not a lasting vote of confidence.

One victory of hope is not the end of political disillusion.

One come back kid is not enough proof for the comeback of our

movement.

As thrilled I am about the result of our party at the elections I therefore

ask you to take one step back. Let’s take into account what is happening

in the last couple years. Not just in the Netherlands, but throughout

Europe.

I’ve had the pleasure to hear Mr. Podesta speak before. In the spring of

2011, we both attended an International conference of Global progressives

on the Future of Progressive Politics in Oslo. The gloomy state of the

progressive movement in Europe was very tangible there. The progressive

politicians whom could call themselves leaders consisted of George

Papandreou, prime minister of Greece; and Boris Tadic, president of

Serbia; and all the rest were former presidents and prime ministers.

Today we meet again, more than a year later. With Papandreaou en Tadic

replaced. But with a progressive leader in the Elysee. But criticism of

Hollande is already rising. It only shows that winning an election is not

enough to change the world overnight.

20 Lodewijk Asscher

A progressive should not defend the status quo. He should be striving for

a better world. Not looking for a narrative, but fighting injustice just

around the corner.

We must act as progressives again. A progressive wants to fight for a

better world, not accept the status quo.

To rediscover our character it helps to ask questions.

I always ask directors of schools in backward areas if they would send

their own children to their schools. If their honest answer is no, there is

no excuse to lean back.

More generally the question for progressives should be:

What do we tend to regard as given, that is in fact unacceptable?

As deputy mayor of Amsterdam I put a lot of energy in fighting injustices

in the Red Light District. Injustices that a lot of people had accepted as

given, as something that couldn’t be changed.

We started to attack the status quo.

We started to protect those who needed protection.

We started to fight what was regarded as given.

For this endeavour I was applauded by former foes and attacked by former

friends.

As a matter of fact I got an award from our own religious right Staat -

kundig Gereformeerde Partij, a political party that excludes women from

their ranks and holds the same view on abortion as your Todd Akin.

But I maintain to this day that this is in fact a progressive project.

Protecting those without power and engaging those with illegitimate

power.

Response 23

for children with an IQ of above 80. There was no bed available for

children with a lower IQ. Though luck.

Let me give you another example: A while ago I received a cry for help

from a social worker who wanted me to make an exception for one of her

clients. The boy’s father is in a wheelchair and is unable to bring his son

to school. Although they live just over a kilometer from school, she

wanted a bus to bring the boy to school. To me this is a typical reflex. We

have become blind to the simple solutions, like asking the boy’s teacher

if there is a classmate living nearby with whom the boy could walk to

school. We have lost our sense of what is normal. We as citizens have

forgotten how to ask for help from our neighbors. We as politician have

started to believe that we have to offer the solution to everybody’s

problems. And react in shock if people are disappointed in politics for

our inability to do so.

With our welfare state under attack, our reflex is to defend it

wholeheartedly. But by identifying ourselves with the status quo, we are

also identifying ourselves with a public sector that is way too bureaucratic,

a public sector that doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do.

The same seems to be the case with the European project. Newspaper

headlines that Holland once again has returned to a wholeheartedly pro

Europe approach may be mistaken. As with the public sector, progressives

haven’t been good custodians of the European project, letting it slip to an

austerity factory for leaders of the right. As in the US, progressives must

provide a credible politics of growth and fiscal responsibility

Progressives around the globe seem to have lost their natural inclinations.

They act out of character. A progressive should not identify himself with

bureaucracies, he should identify himself with those who gets lost in

bureaucracies. A progressive should not be modest, but zealous.

22 Lodewijk Asscher

There are many areas where we have grown used to things that are totally

unacceptable.

We live in a freeriders economy where profits are private but losses are

pushed off on the collective. Look at our banks. They gambled with our

future. And as long as they won, they kept the gains, but when their lucks

changed, the taxpayer paid for their losses. We accept the current

economic structure as a given, instead of fighting its excesses. We accept

the fact that under the guise of personal responsibility, government has

withdrawn itself from society.

As John Podesta mentioned: Rain or shine, the solution is to decapitate

government. Just as misguided as the spending urge of the left.

We accept that risks are shifted from government to individual citizens.

We accept a government that says: the welfare state has become too costly,

so we dismiss it.

We have grown used to things that are unacceptable.

Why are we so passive in the face of these gross injustices?

Because we were told to believe that because earlier efforts to change the

world failed all efforts are doomed.

Lack of imagination is sold to us as realism.

But this realism is defeat before the fight.

We must learn from mistakes of the past, not to sell out our values, but

to find new ways to serve them.

Making progressives matter again is making progressives care again.

Response 25

No opportunity society can be built on an economy of slavery.

A similar clash I have experienced with the boards of our schools.

Progressives have always fought for equality of opportunity. Without

excellent education for the disadvantaged such equality of opportunity is

a joke. But something strange has happened. We do spend extra money

on the education of immigrant children, but we don’t demand extra

results.

On the contrary.

We have come to accept that only a small minority of immigrant kids

really succeed in school. We have come to accept that our education is

deeply segregated. We have come to accept that in some areas very few

kids go to college.

We have grown accustomed to something that is totally unacceptable. The

progressive reflex? To blame the right.

The money we spend is not an investment in the future of our kids, but

an indulgence to buy off our conscience.

No opportunity society can be built on an economy of segregation.

Progressives should fight for equality of life chances. Success in life

should depend on the diligence and talent of the kids, not on the money

and the educational level of their parents. But if we really believe in

equality of life’s chances, we cannot accept the status quo.

We must walk the extra mile, the extra ten miles. We won’t rest until we

succeed.

24 Lodewijk Asscher

but active producers of the public good.

We need to make possible what seems to be impossible.

Therefore we need all those who gave Diederik a big hand on Wednesday,

to give him a helping hand tomorrow.

That is the only way to turn a good campaign into a lasting vote of

confidence.

To turn a victory of hope into an end of political disillusion.

To make a come back kid proof for a comeback of our movement.

Thank you!

Response 27

We must not and cannot accept the bureaucratic design of the public

good. We must reinvent it.

We must not defend the status quo, but challenge it.

We must become what we deep down have always been.

The battle we fought in the elections was hard, but the battle ahead will

be even harder. The welfare state will not become an opportunity society

by technocratic modernization, but by fighting for change. Every single

day.

In order to do so, we need to reach out to other progressive parties but

also look for cooperation with the progressive forces in all other parties.

I don’t know what government will be formed the next couple of weeks.

But it has to be about reinventing the public sector, it has to be about

reforming the European Project, it has to be about restoring our economy,

or it shouldn’t be at all.

We need to continue to tell the truth, inconvenient or not. Just like

Diederik Samsom did. Because people deserve to be taken seriously.

We need to govern to change things. Attack the status quo relentlessly

and driven by our values. We need to fight against the commodification

of human beings, fight against a society were we see labour only in terms

of cost.

We should never just mind the store, our work is never done. We must

work hard to improve Europe, improve our economy, education and fight

for values money can’t buy.

To succeed in this bigger challenge we need allies.

We don’t need citizens who act as passive consumers of state supplies,

26 Lodewijk Asscher

Previous BKB Lectures

Rob Wijnberg (philosopher and former editor in chief of nrc.next) -

De haast van Nederland, (2009)

Fanie Du Toit (director of the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation

(South Africa)) - Relativism, reconciliation and reality - Ethical politics in

divided societies, (2010)

Esraa Abdel Fattah (Egyptian internet activist and blogger) - Eighteen

days - A personal account of the Egyptian revolution, (2011)

28

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T | + 31 (0) 20 520 5280

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John podesta John is Chair and Counselor of

the Center for American Progress.. Under his

leadership, American Progress has become a

notable leader in the development of and

advocacy for progressive policy.

Prior to founding the Center in 2003, Podesta

served as White House chief of staff to

President William J. Clinton. He served in the

president's cabinet and as a principal on the

National Security Council. While in the White

House, he also served as both an assistant to the president and deputy chief of

staff, as well as staff secretary and a senior policy advisor on government

information, privacy, telecommunications security, and regulatory policy.

Most recently, Podesta served as co-chair of President Obama’s transition

government, where he coordinated the priorities of the incoming administration’s

agenda, oversaw the development of its policies, and spearheaded its

appointments of major cabinet secretaries and political appointees.

A Chicago native, Podesta is a graduate of Knox College and the Georgetown

University Law Center, where he is currently a visiting professor of law. He also

authored The Power of Progress: How America’s Progressives Can (Once Again)

Save Our Economy, Our Climate and Our Country.

lodewijk asscher is an Amsterdam city

alderman. Asscher studied law and completed

a PhD thesis at the University of Amsterdam in

2002. He was a member of Amsterdam city

council from 2002, became party group leader

in 2004, and alderman in 2006. Asscher is

responsible for, among others, finance, youth

policy, education, and Project 2012. He

received international recognition for this latter

role from, among others, John Podesta, who

praised Asscher for his struggle against women trafficking at the Progressive

Governance conference in Madrid. Besides alderman and deputy mayor of

Amsterdam, Asscher is also chairman of the Wiardi Beckman Stichting, the Labour

Party’s think tank.

bkb lezing 2012

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